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Penny Wise But Pound Foolish: How Permanent Supportive Housing Can Prevent A World Of Hurt, Lavena Staten, Sara Rankin

Homeless Rights Advocacy Project

People experiencing chronic homelessness are trapped in a cycle of homelessness and trauma. Traditional approaches to homelessness attempt to address people’s trauma first and use housing as a reward for complying with treatment; such approaches fail because people cannot improve physically or psychologically while they are actively experiencing the trauma of homelessness. Our current responses to chronic homelessness do not work, but cities often justify the status quo as the only fiscally responsible option. Instead, these approaches are among the most expensive and least effective.

Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) flips the traditional order in which homelessness and trauma are addressed …